Pakistani Court Refuses To Halt Execution Of Paraplegic

Pakistan's highest court has refused to halt the execution of a paraplegic death-row convict.

According to a lawyer and an international rights group, the Supreme Court rejected a plea to grant a stay of execution for Abdul Basit on September 21.

Basit's mother, Nusrat Perveen, said her last hope was a pardon from President Mamnoon Hussain.

She quoted officials at a jail in the city of Faisalabad as telling her that Basit would be hanged before dawn on September 22.

Basit, 43, has been on death row since 2009 after being convicted of murdering a man. He has been using a wheelchair since contracting meningitis in prison in 2010. Basit has always maintained his innocence.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, authorities have hanged more than 230 people after lifting a 2008 moratorium on executions in December 2014.